He didn't preform to expectations but I wouldn't say he was a total disappointment. He does all of the little things very, very well. Obviously the Red Bulls need more then that out of him but he did come quite close to scoring a bunch of goals.

I expect he will have a very good year this season, provided they can find him a spot on the pitch where he is comfortable.

Yeah, I'm not writing him off or anything. I just thought last year he was just a good MLS player. But that's a pretty big disappoint given his name, history, salary and all the expectations that come with that.

Yeah that's fair enough. But after some of the players with "name, history, salary and expectations" that Metro/Red Bull have brought in over the years, believe me that Cahill is far from a disappointment.

See what I said in my other reply. Overrated doesn't mean not good, just not meeting expectations. Given the hype, salary, history of Cahill I don't think it's a great leap to say he's one of the most overrated players in the league when you compare what people think about him to what he did on the field and what it took to get him on that field.

It really depends on what you're looking for in a defensive midfielder. Pause is going to break up plays, almost never commit a foul, and rarely give the ball away. He's not going to score or setup goals, and that's not really his job anyways. He provides stability in front of the back line. Also, he's a great leader and does a lot just to keep the team organized and under control.

I'm happy with us paying $200,000 for him and think he's worth it. I don't think we have another player at that position that you can count on as reliably as Pause. Rarely injured, never suspended, and always does the job he's sent out there to do. Consistency comes with a high price tag, even if he isn't a magical goal scorer. Go watch some of the games we played without him, as that's the only real way to assess his impact. He doesn't seem to do a lot, but when he's gone, our team turns into a disorganized mess in a hurry. A number of our own players even voiced their concerns about how they were going to carry on without him.

Now, if Klopas actually liked to attack and didn't insist on playing a 4-2-3-1, I'd probably sing a whole different tune. The thing is, we're a counterattacking team through and through under Klopas. We need Pause to break up plays, and make the simple pass to guys like Rolfe, Nyarko, etc that leads us on to a break. If we were trying to play a 4-3-3, I'd be the first to say that Pause doesn't belong, but we're not.

I think the fact that he never commits fouls is not a positive, but evidence of how little he really does.

I've watched games with and without him, I don't think we lose much when he's gone. We won 2 and lost 1 when he was injured -- doesn't exactly support your claim that the team goes to pieces without him.

I want someone that is going to boss that midfield and completely own it. I want someone that is going to shut down and scare Graham Zusi or Juninho so hard, they're looking over their shoulder as soon as they get the ball.

Logan is smart, he will rarely make a mistake and he will always play it safe. So he won't slide tackle, he's not that tall so he won't win too many 50/50 challenges in the air, and he wont risk the yellow card.

He's about as good at his job as Segares post-Cyprus. When once Segares was an all-star and called up for Costa Rica...now he gets beaten several times a match and he doesn't have the same speed to help the attack. He's just ok now.
But if I say the truth about Segares...no one gets up in arms and indignant over it, like they do with criticisms of Pause. Nope, instead they nod and agree.

Look, I like Pause...but if he had to sit the rest of the season out. Larentowicz would replace him and we'd barely miss a step.

I'm tired of hearing this about Shea. Been hearing it for the past 2 years. He's had a couple shining moments and the rest has been him being childish and underperforming. He's going to end up another Fredy Adu.

You're correct, and it's absolutely time for him to put up or shut up. As a FC Dallas fan, trust me when I say we get tired of it sometimes too.

I wouldn't say Brek is overrated based on his talent or what he can do, but he is perhaps overrated based on what he actually gives the team on a game-by-game basis.

The only time I see him play consistently hard is for the USMNT, and even there he's had some pretty poor games where he just didn't look motivated. He'll get frustrated so easily sometimes and just get pouty - it's not becoming to a player of his talent.

Too small and once he screws up he gets lost and everyone can run pass him. He's been hiding in Omar shadow this whole time. People defending him always say "he can read the game well" whoopty doo but he cant stop anything. This guy right here was glad when Meyes took his spot for the playoffs + final.

opta chalkboards on this guy. look at how important kyle is in maintaining possession for us, as well as changing the point of the attack. maybe he'd be better closer to goal, but no one we put in that position does as well as him.

second- the impact he has on the team in undeniable. watch us with and without him- yes, yordany is solid... but theres a confidence and aggression missing within the team when hes not out there.

again, two very subtle things... but personally i think it says a lot of good about American soccer that we can appreciate someone like Kyle, even if he isnt as good of a passer as Pirlo. and the reason Jurgen plays him, as Kreis has said, is because Kyle does everything asked of him- Edu, Jones, Williams, and even Bradley to a certain extent, don't take the defensive responsibilities as seriously as kyle.

While true, when I think of a player as over-rated, I don't think of the pure states, I think of how people actually rate them, hence the term. People are pretty rough on Kenny and whenever someone brings up his goal total, people always say Henry gave him them. Which to a good extent is true, he had to finish those opportunities too. Not many strikers in the league would've finished that many of those opportunities.

Which I'm not saying he's one of the best in the league, but he is good at one particular thing and thats finishing his chances. Thats sure as hell something KC could've used last year. We didn't have a guy that could finish many of his chances.

My vote goes to Dan Kennedy. I hear people gush about him all the time because he makes great saves. That's all well and good, but his save percentage hasn't been better than top 7 for keepers with over 1,000 minutes and he hasn't even shown an aptitude for organizing a backline.

As someone who is far from an expert on this topic, I would suspect the answer is that a team with a better defense will force worse shots that are easier for the goalie to stop, thus raising their save percentage.

Does anyone even know their best CB pairing? I don't know if I would critisize him for problems that could very much be related to Chivas just being a bad team. Califf was their best defender last year, and speaking from experience, he really isn't a top CB in this league anymore.

I agree that there's definitely other problems surrounding the Chivas defense. but I see comments on here with plenty of upvotes saying how he's been snubbed for the national team again and again. He's simply not THAT good.

I'd say he's the best pure shot stopper in the league just from eye test. He can struggle coming out for crosses though, and as you said we just don't really know if it's his coordinating of the backline that's bad or just the backline itself. We all saw the impact of Gspurning going out last year and how disorganized your backline looked compared to when he came back. I definitely agree that that's a largely overlooked but incredibly important part of being a GK.

I agree, I was really hoping to finally see him play CAM this year behind Casey and Le Toux now that he'll finally have someone to play the ball to. But I don't blame the Union for not wanting his salary and I don't blame him for not wanting a pay cut.

To find the most overrated player, you just need to look for the worst players the public considers indispensable for their team. That would be people like Victor Bernardez, Aurelien Collin, Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Davis, Jamison Olave, Shalrie Joseph.

Many of these people were gone for quite some time, and their teams still did great.

ಠ_ಠ You saw the Quakes' playoff games against LA, right? He won us one game and as soon as he came off in the second leg, we were ripped apart. He is a solid center back that keeps our defense together

That is one game, but we can't know for sure what the result would have been in the first game or second game without him. Having seen the games it seems likely the first game would have been worse, but the second game i don't know, maybe they would have used the sub on someone else.

However, you can look at the stretch earlier in the season where he was injured, and nothing crazy happened, the quakes won a lot, had a loss in there, and a few draws as he got better. What I'm saying is there period of time without him their results were the same as with him. To me, that is an overrated player, someone people say is invaluable, and the stats show he doesn't make a difference on the actual results.

It is definitely true that playoff games are more valuable than regular season games, no doubt I agree with you there. However, it is very difficult to make big conclusions from an individual game, especially a conclusion like "this player is invaluable to this team", and I don't think those particular games are enough proof to combat the results we saw earlier in the season. And I'm saying I do think that is enough to say that he should be a candidate for most overrated player (not necessarily that he is, because I don't think he is).

I'd remove Alonso from that list, however. He only missed 4 games this season - 2 wins over Dallas, a tie with Chivas and a drubbing by Montreal. Not exactly the toughest competition for those games. Additionally, last season when Alonso missed a stretch due to injury we earned something like 6 points out of a possible 21.

I agree. I don't think Alonso is overrated at all. He has one of the highest pass completion rates in the league, and his tackles-won number FAR outstrips any other midfielder. There are other players who are more skillful or who contribute to offense more, but I wouldn't pick any defensive midfielder over him.

He has two dimensions, beat you on a dead sprint or beat you on the first two steps. They're two different things that most people usually just group together as "speed". I can beat everyone in my pickup game at a dead sprint, but my first step is about average.

I'm guessing this is mostly a misconception that happens with players that are also good people. Nobody thinks Zakuani is the best player in the league. I doubt anyone think he is the best player at is salary mark. So the only way I believe you think people think that highly of him, is you confuse how much fans like him as a person, with how much they think he will destroy the opposition.

For the record, he is an awesome person and I don't see how anyone could think he is the most overrated player in a league that contains others mentioned in this thread.

I'm thinking of the hype that had him penciled in as Donovan's replacement on the USA, and predictions about him transferring to Barcelona or Chelsea. This was all pre-leg break stuff that was all over forums, comments, and wherever.

He was rapidly developing decent ball control, with slashing attack notes from the wing. Add that refinement to his top flight speed (knock on wood) and I bet we'll like what we see this season from him.